That doesn’t happen in Woodshock. The first film from Kate and Laura Mulleavy is a bit like their fashion line, Rodarte: It’s obsessively detailed, unceasingly lush, and sometimes unsettling. “Nothing’s going to be explained to you,” says Laura, “because we need you to be part of Theresa’s journey.”

Played by Kirsten Dunst, Theresa is a cannabis dispenser who works at a sketchy (and sometimes lethal) pot shop in Northern California. High on grief and tripping on drugs, the sleep-deprived heroine takes a journey through a modern enchanted forest—the last giant redwoods on earth.

We sat down with the film’s directors, plus their star/muse/first-ever clothing model for a discussion on female journeys, teen metabolisms, and stunts that rival Spiderman.

Come join the circle…

Woodshock

Woodshock is not a well-behaved movie. It’s not tidy, it’s not linear, and it’s not about romance. Theresa doesn’t solve her problems with a guy—they’re all kind of useless to her.

KATE MULLEAVY: Don’t you love the idea of a female main character in a movie doing something you can’t anticipate? For me, that’s what I needed to see in a film…. There are big symbolic things we associate with self-discovery—finding yourself, going on the road, writing the great American novel, or taking some kind of drug and having an epiphany. But we don’t always associate those with a female presence.

KIRSTEN DUNST: It’s always a guy...

LAURA MULLEAVY: We had a friend who told us the movie reminded them of Alice in Wonderland. Because that's a really feminist story, if you think about it. She's the one making choices; she's the one with all the agency.

Your character, Theresa, works in a pot shop. Who taught you how to roll your first joint?

KIRSTEN DUNST: Actually, I was really nervous, because I am so bad at rolling joints. Did you think I looked credible? Did I do good? I was terrible at rolling them until Fargo. Jesse [Plemons, her fiancé] would make me practice with him on set. So between Jesse and my brother...and I did go to a cannabis refinery for research. They gave me some papers so I could practice. That was my homework.

You’re all close friends—but in this film, two of you are the directors and one of you is the actress. Is there a change in the power dynamic on set?

KATE MULLEAVY: Our job as [film] directors is to bring a group of people together, and to make them trust what we’re building. I’ve always found that if you give people a reason to believe in something, they’ll give you more than you could ever imagine. So it’s kind of our job to say, “Hey, we trust you creatively. Let’s get together and make something exciting.”

Woodshock

Kirsten, your performance is very physical. You’re climbing trees, you’re building fences, you fall from a really high perch. The whole movie, I was like, “Does she just have splinters everywhere?”

KIRSTEN DUNST: Yeah, there was definitely some of that. I had a lot of bruising and a lot of dirt—I’d get home and have to scrub dirt off my whole body. But I think I got most of the bruises from the fall.

Wait, when you fall from the top of a tree, that’s real?

KIRSTEN DUNST: It’s real. And it’s a hundred-foot drop.

LAURA MULLEAVY: There’s only one special effect in the movie. But the drop was on camera. And we had to say, “Sorry, but after we get you up a hundred feet in the trees, can you fall backwards and can you do it really gracefully?” And she did.

KIRSTEN DUNST: I did a little movie called Spiderman once. There was one part of that movie where they did make me freefall. I did it once, face down, and I was like, “You should have shot that, because I will never do that again.” It was basically like bungee jumping. I was like, “Nope. Never again.” But this time, I was in a position in those trees that nobody gets to be in. It was one of the most magical experiences of my life. To look around—it’s so different up there. It’s so quiet. The only people who get to go up there are loggers that cut them down or scientists exploring the canopies. And birds. And me. For like one day.

KATE MULLEAVY: Those redwoods are the largest living organisms on the planet. They’re larger than the Statue of Liberty. And, sadly, 95 percent of them have been cut down. But these trees, they’re these living beings, and being with them was almost a mystical experience…. There’s a poet who calls a forest “the green chaos.” He says the further we remove ourselves from a forest, the further we remove ourselves from our own enlightenment.

The title, Woodshock, means getting lost, and panicked or disoriented, in the woods. But I feel woodshock in my own life sometimes, regardless of where I am. Do you? How do you deal with feeling lost, or stuck?

KIRSTEN DUNST: As an actress, there’s a lot of waiting. You wait for a script to come in that you want to do. You get to a point where you decide that if you want good things to be made, you’re going to have to start making them yourself as an actress. You can’t just wait around for it. Actually, my friend and I are doing a dark comedy, and we’re getting writers together. But you can also just enjoy the breaks, and use them to kind of refuel. I’ve been working so long at this point that I don’t mind the breaks. I think they make me better, actually.

"You decide that if you want good things to be made, you’re going to have to have to start making them yourself"

LAURA MULLEAVY: For me, Kate and I are creative partners. That means that if I’m not inspired or I think something isn’t working, there’s another person who I trust, who might see something good that I’m not seeing. When you have a partner, it’s a constant stream of ideas. It’s almost unending. Which is good, because creative droughts, when you’re going through them, they’re very isolating. When you accept the idea of collaboration—that it’s not just you-you-you doing the project—you solve that isolation, and also you probably solve your creative drought. It’s kind of like you’re letting someone be isolated with you, if that makes sense. I can’t imagine doing that on my own.

KATE MULLEAVY: My rule is, I never push the idea. And in fashion, that rule probably worked against us because we’re always running up to the last minute. But if we don’t have a great idea, we’re not going to make a collection. It’s like, I don’t want to do four collections a year, because I’d run out of great ideas! We live in a culture that needs so much immediacy. But I want to take an idea and really fulfill it. That means I need time.

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It’s the first week of fall, and girls everywhere are just starting high school or college. What’s your advice to them?

LAURA MULLEAVY: I remember realizing in high school that my value was going to be based in my intelligence, and that I had to take every opportunity to learn. That’s how I would create a voice of my own. And that will open every door for you. If intelligence is a gift you have, run with it. Don’t be ashamed of it. It’s not about what you look like. It’s not about how many friends you have. High school is about being aware and open to education, and to having your mind changed.

KIRSTEN DUNST: I was always in and out of school. I was always thankful to have my friends and my lunch table to come back to. What I learned in high school is that female friendships are so much more important than worrying about having a boyfriend or looking good or things like that. I had such a good girlfriend growing up that we didn’t need anything. We had such a creative world of our own imagination together. For me, if I have a child, I would say, “I hope you find a best friend that makes it so you don’t really need much but each other.” Learning about that type of friendship and trust is one of the best things I ever got out of school. Enjoy it.

KATE MULLEAVY: Yeah, I would say just enjoy it.

"If intelligence is a gift you have, run with it. Don’t be ashamed of it."

KIRSTEN DUNST: Enjoy your metabolism! I always bought lunch at school. I ate so much pizza. I loved that nasty school lunch. My mom always made me a nice dinner—beautiful homemade dinners. But I never ate breakfast, which was so bad. That’s something else I would tell girls: You have to eat breakfast.

KATE MULLEAVY: Because when you’re a teenager, you don’t know that skipping breakfast kills your metabolism!

KIRSTEN DUNST: Also, the most important thing for your brain is breakfast. My friend Cindy would pick me up every morning before school—I was afraid of driving in L.A., I was like, “I should not be behind the wheel of a car!” So Cindy would pick me up and hand me a large Frappuccino, with whipped cream on top and everything. That’s not breakfast. That’s not even coffee. That’s, like, literally a milkshake with caffeine. I was so jacked up! Although you know what, enjoy the coffee, too. Because now that I’m an adult, I can’t always stomach coffee. [Laughing] Being in your thirties is hard!

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But being in our thirties means we can have mentors and be mentors. Who’s taught you how to teach the younger generation?

KATE MULLEAVY: Ooh, one of my mentors was an English teacher in middle school. I was never the type of kid to submit my work anywhere. She took one of my stories and she sent it into a writing contest and it won. It wasn’t professional or anything—it’s not like I got a book deal! But it just showed me, you know, that all it takes is a push from someone. Telling someone they’re good at something is really important. She really believed in me—even though it was so small…of course, nobody will ever believe in you as much as you. When you believe in what you have to say, it propels you forward.

KIRSTEN DUNST: If girls want a mentor, I mean, I think they should look at Laura and Kate. They’re really their own artists. They’re not beholden to anyone, and they follow their own path. I think if I was a young girl and I wanted to be a fashion designer, I would be able to know that I could do it independently like they have, and do it on their own terms.

LAURA MULLEAVY: But it’s the same thing with you! Look at Kirsten’s body of work—the younger generation is consuming it. They’re translating to 16-year-olds, and that’s one of the most powerful things you can do.

Wow, you guys are…

KIRSTEN DUNST: Really good at complimenting each other? Yeah, we are.

KATE MULLEAVY: We have a group text.

A group text of compliments?

KIRSTEN DUNST: Not specifically, just a regular group text. But we’re all there for each other, when we're having weird days.

KATE MULLEAVY: There’s ups and downs, and when it’s difficult, you wake up in the morning and think, “Why did I decide to do this?” But that’s why you collaborate. To have people to pull you out of it.

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